Regulating Railroad Innovation

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-521-80636-7
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 414 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 823 g

Efforts to create and mould new technologies have been a central, recurrent feature of the American experience since at least the time of the Revolution. In Regulating Railroad Innovation, historian Steven Usselman brings this neglected aspect of American history to light. For nearly a century, railroad technology persistently posed novel challenges for Americans, prompting them to re-examine their most cherished institutions and beliefs. Business managers, inventors, consumers, and politicians all strained to contain the forces of innovation and to channel technical change toward the ends they desired. Moving through time from the first experimental lines through the polished but troubled railroad machines of the early twentieth century, Usselman examines diverse forums ranging from legislatures, and evolving corporate bureaucracies to laboratories, engineering societies, and world's fairs. In the process, his book situates technology within the dynamic history of an emergent industrial nation and elucidates its enduring place in American society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Usselman, Steven W.

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Transport- und Verkehrswirtschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Kultur-, Wissenschafts- & Technologiepolitik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Geschichte der VWL
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Industrie- und Technologiepolitik
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technikgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I. Assembling the Machine, 1840-1876: 1. Engines of expansion and extraction: the politics of development; 2. Acquiring technology: insider innovation; 3. Patent problems: inventors and the market for technology; Part II. Running the Machine, 1876-1904: 4. Patent remedies: politics, jurisprudence, and procedure; 5. Mastering technology, channeling change; 6. Standardizing steel rails: engineered innovation; 7. Engineering enshrined; Part III. Friction in the Machine, 1904-1920: 8. Reluctant innovators: the annoying allure of automatic train control; 9. The limits of engineering: rate regulation and the course of innovation; Epilogue: the enduring challenge of innovation.